John & Waleed Delightfully Break Down Cultural Barriers Through Music
John & Waleed proves the remarkable power of music as a way to shatter our prejudices and biases towards cultures outside our own. Live-streamed from Toronto’s Theatre Passe Muraille, the production was digitally co-presented by the Grand Onstage. Resembling more of a cabaret than a theatrical play, the performance shifts between musical numbers and anecdotes from the two performers.
While the performance had previously been workshopped at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts in 2012, produced by Cahoots Theatre and The Music Centre in 2015, and staged at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2017, this production was forced to alter its staging due to the pandemic. While it is assumed that in prior productions, the two musicians were physically close to each other on stage, in this production, the two were socially distanced from each other occupying vastly different areas.
In her director’s note, Marjorie Chan notes how the set design of a sail is indicative of “our journeys from afar, and the global migration of people.” John Millard, a Canadian of Scottish descent, was born and raised in Kitchener, Ontario. In stark contrast, Waleed Abdulhamid is from Khartoum in Sudan, and immigrated to Canada in the 1990s. The two musicians met at Soulpeppper at the Young Centre For The Performing Arts, where they planned to devise a cabaret together. As recounted throughout the performance, the pair ran into some unexpected cultural barriers. For example, when Waleed realized that Millard was Kitchener, he remarked that Kitchener is named after the British General who killed Sudanese people during the Anglo-Egyptian invasion. Anecdotes such as these helped reveal the inherent cultural differences and upbringings between the two that they would later overcome and celebrate together through music. Their friendship blossomed when the two shared their favorite childhood songs, which helped to cement their shared passion for music.
Musically, both Millard and Abdulhamid impressed extraordinarily. Millard displayed a strong talent on the banjo, while Abdulhamid impressively navigated a slew of instruments including the Fluid Bass, African Percussions, and the Tambura. As Chan notes in the programme, it is coincidental that Millard is so skilled at the banjo, seeing as it’s an instrument originating in Africa. The two artists typically alternated songs with Millard playing original music while Abdulhamid leaned more to Sudanese music. As well, audiences received a digital document before the show with English translations of the Sudanese songs.
While the anecdotes provided great insights into the backgrounds of both musicians, it would have been ideal if they could have been taken further, and consisted of more depth. For example, with the anecdote of Waleed realizing that Kitchener was named after the British general, I would have loved to see more of a reflection on how that moment made him feel. However, the performance felt profoundly intimate, as if the virtual viewers were sitting in on a conversation between two friends. John & Waleed expertly prove how music can be an all-encompassing force capable of uniting individuals of vastly different cultural backgrounds. The performance culminated in an enjoyable and welcoming evening full of great music and reflective anecdotes that heartwarmingly demonstrated the power of music as a force for good.
Production Information: https://www.kingstongrand.ca/events/john-waleed